As you can see, I'm not exactly a prolific blogger but I've decided that instead of starting new posts but never finishing or publishing them (hence my delayed last post!), I'm going to make more of an effort to blog more regularly. Maybe then I will attract a few more followers and I'll feel less like I am waffling away to myself all the time!
So, if you stumble across my meagre offerings, please don't run away too quickly, never to return, you might miss something interesting.
Then again, you might not!
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
The day my shoes melted!
A while back we were in Scotland for a holiday and in a local What's On mag in our cottage, I spotted something called the Doors Open Days that caught my attention so I checked out the website (www.doorsopendays.org.uk). There was a chance to see inside a glass factory and I was a little intrigued as I love all things glass, but figured it wasn't really fair to drag my long-suffering partner around there while we were on holiday. However, after attending another event at Sauchie Tower where I met an employee of the glass company, we were persuaded to put our names down for the next day's tour.
And all I can say is WOW! It was amazing! We saw the whole process from where the raw materials went into the furnace (at a sweltering 1500 degrees celsius) to where the bottles were packaged up on pallets ready to go to the customers to fill with alcohol of many varieties. I knew I should have made notes because it was too long ago for me to remember everything we were told, but this factory uses £30,000-worth of gas per day, and makes 2.5million bottles per day! I think that's what they said, but whatever the number, it was a huge amount :) Each mould makes 2 bottles every 12 secs and it's a 24-7, 365 days a year process because of the time & energy it takes to reheat a cold furnace.
This particular factory is based in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland but O-I Glass is all over the world and is now the largest European glass packaging manufacturer.
You can see a video about the bottle making process here but it's so tame compared to the real thing. We were blown away by it all so I can highly recommend a visit next September when they will hopefully re-open their doors for Doors Open Days 2011. My only regret is that we weren't allowed to take photos due to the chance we could be spies from rival manufacturer! The sight of hundreds and hundreds of bottles being gently jostled into line was something to behold.
If you live in Scotland, then hopefully you are already aware of Doors Open Days but don't forget to check out the website for more info (www.doorsopendays.org.uk) - there are so many places you can visit that the general public can't see usually - we were lucky to be in the area at the right time. The English equivalent is Heritage Open Days (www.heritageopendays.org.uk) which I am quite ashamed to say that I had never even heard of until now. If you check out this page on the Doors Open Days site, it gives links to other organisations in Wales, NI, & London too.
To finish, I'd like to thank the lovely lady from Clackmannanshire Council who's name I don't remember - but she showed us around Sauchie Tower and she was also organising other events too.
P.S. My shoes didn't really melt but they almost did - the metal walkways were red-hot!
And all I can say is WOW! It was amazing! We saw the whole process from where the raw materials went into the furnace (at a sweltering 1500 degrees celsius) to where the bottles were packaged up on pallets ready to go to the customers to fill with alcohol of many varieties. I knew I should have made notes because it was too long ago for me to remember everything we were told, but this factory uses £30,000-worth of gas per day, and makes 2.5million bottles per day! I think that's what they said, but whatever the number, it was a huge amount :) Each mould makes 2 bottles every 12 secs and it's a 24-7, 365 days a year process because of the time & energy it takes to reheat a cold furnace.
This particular factory is based in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland but O-I Glass is all over the world and is now the largest European glass packaging manufacturer.
You can see a video about the bottle making process here but it's so tame compared to the real thing. We were blown away by it all so I can highly recommend a visit next September when they will hopefully re-open their doors for Doors Open Days 2011. My only regret is that we weren't allowed to take photos due to the chance we could be spies from rival manufacturer! The sight of hundreds and hundreds of bottles being gently jostled into line was something to behold.
If you live in Scotland, then hopefully you are already aware of Doors Open Days but don't forget to check out the website for more info (www.doorsopendays.org.uk) - there are so many places you can visit that the general public can't see usually - we were lucky to be in the area at the right time. The English equivalent is Heritage Open Days (www.heritageopendays.org.uk) which I am quite ashamed to say that I had never even heard of until now. If you check out this page on the Doors Open Days site, it gives links to other organisations in Wales, NI, & London too.
To finish, I'd like to thank the lovely lady from Clackmannanshire Council who's name I don't remember - but she showed us around Sauchie Tower and she was also organising other events too.
P.S. My shoes didn't really melt but they almost did - the metal walkways were red-hot!
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